Chapter 16
Marlo: Lost and Found
I woke up to the sound of a tire screeching. I looked to my left and noticed that Sugar had gotten out of bed. I called her name a few times before getting up. I went into the bathroom and when I called her name again, no response. Where the hell was she? I went downstairs and continued to call her name, but still no response. I began to worry, and once I opened the front door and saw her car still parked I was more nervous than I had ever been. I walked up to the car, and before opening the door I saw the strap of a pocket book. I bent down to pick it up and ran into the house to call my boy Rock.
“Yo, Rock, they took Sugar!” I yelled.
“Who took her?”
“I don’t know, whoever’s been fucking with her! I can’t believe this shit, man. How the fuck did they take her from right under my nose, man?” I yelled, before sitting down on the sofa.
“What am I going to do, man? If something happens to her, I’m going to go crazy!”
“I’ll be over, man. We’ll find her. Don’t even stress, all right?”
“I’m getting dressed now. Bring the guns too, man!”
Click.
I got dressed and paced the floor, waiting for Rock to get there. Each minute was another minute that I could have been looking for her, and I was becoming more furious each second. I dialed Mya’s number since she was at the top of my list of suspects. She answered the phone on the third ring.
“What’s up, baby daddy?” she said with a giggle.
“This ain’t no social call, where the fuck is Sugar?”
“You need to keep a leash on her and you won’t have that problem anymore.”
“I know you are behind this shit, Mya!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Marlo. I don’t know where Sugar is.”
“If I find out different, that’s your ass! Believe that!”
Click.
Rock was entering the house, and I was ready to explode by that point.
“Did you hear anything yet?” he asked.
“No not yet, let’s go find that nigga JT. Because I’m thinking he might have something to do with it too.”
“Let’s go.”
After driving around we were unsuccessful in our efforts to find JT. I went to every spot that I could think of. I even paid a few crackheads with cocaine to find out where he lived. Once we arrived at the house I damn near kicked the door in when no one answered. My mind was racing because I didn’t know what to do. I sat down on the step to get my thoughts together when my cell phone rang.
“Hello!” I screamed, into the receiver.
“Looking for me, nigga?”
“Who the fuck is this?”
“The nigga you been looking for. I guess you want to know where your girl is at, huh?”
“I will fucking kill you if you hurt her!”
“You’re not in any position to throw out threats.”
“Where is she, man?”
“It’s not going to be that easy, man. You need to do some things first!”
“I don’t have time for games, man. What do you want?”
“$500,000 cash, all hundreds in forty-eight hours.”
“That’s not enough time to get that together. What the fuck are you trying to pull?” I said, hoping that I could get her back without the money. I didn’t know a whole lot about JT, but I’ve never heard of him being one to be afraid of.
“Well it better be, or she’s dead!”
Click.
“Who was that, man?” Rock asked.
“That muthafucker JT. He wants $500,000 in two days or Sugar’s dead.”
“That nigga is as good as gone!” Rock yelled.
“I can’t believe this shit!”
I knew that I needed to get the money to get to Sugar and that nigga JT was dead once I caught up to him. Since I didn’t know much about him, I didn’t know what to expect. I went back to the house to get the money out of the safe. I bagged up the money in a suitcase and waited around for the next call, which came about three hours later.
“Are you working on the money?” JT asked.
“I got the money, man.”
“That was quick. I guess you mean business.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Good, because I do too! Bring the money to Dymes Escorts and give it to Dyna. Once she counts it and calls me with the OK, I’ll let you know where to find Sugar.”
“Dyna! That bitch is in on this too?”
“Just take her the money!”
Click.
The more that was revealed about this the more crazy it sounded. If JT and Dyna were involved, then Mya was definitely a part of it as well. I planned to bury each one of them when it was all over with. Rock and me headed to Dyna’s store to make the drop. Dyna unlocked the door and smiled.
“I don’t what the fuck you’re smiling at!” I yelled.
“Well, hello to you too, Marlo.”
“Let’s get this shit over with so I can find out where Sugar is.”
“No problem. I guess you really love her, huh? I loved her once. I loved the way she made love to me too.”
“I’m not trying to hear that shit, Dyna. What the hell do you need money for anyway?” I asked, trying to hold my composure. I was ready to kill this bitch, but I knew that if I did I would probably never find out where Sugar was.
“It’s not about money, Marlo. You haven’t figured that out? Your girl fucks a lot of people over, especially her sister. She stole you right from under Mya’s feet and rubbed that shit all in her face.”
“She didn’t steal me. I wasn’t even dealing with Mya when I got with Sugar.”
“That may be true, but you never fuck with your sister’s ex either.”
“What about you? What did she ever do to you?”
“I gave her the world, I got her away from her crack-head mother, and gave her a new life. She would have never been shit without me, and what did she do? Give me her ass to kiss! I don’t take rejection that easily, and she owed me!”
“Why did she owe you anything? She worked for what she had.”
“Bullshit! She didn’t work nearly enough to get what I gave her.”
“And JT? What did she do to him?”
“Embarrassed him.”
“Embarrassed him?”
“She made him look like a nut by fucking that nigga Dollar. He hated that shit. Dudes still clown him to this day for that shit.”
“He set her up, so how can he be mad at her?”
“That’s not the point, Marlo.”
“Well, what is the point?”
“Look, she’s a bitch and she deserves everything she gets!”
It took everything in me not to strangle her, but I knew that I would never find Sugar if I did. Dyna continued to put the stacks of hundreds into the counter while I sat there burning up inside. It was hard for me to believe that the three of them would do this for the reasons that she described. Their motivation was puzzling me, but I was motivated by pure anger, and when it was all said and done they would be sorry for what they did. After the money was counted she told us to wait outside in the car while she made the phone call to JT.
“Wait outside? Are you fucking crazy? I don’t even know if she’s alive. Call that nigga JT and tell him to let me hear her voice or something,” I yelled. I wasn’t about to drop that kind of money and just walk out of here.
“OK, hold on!” she replied. She dialed his number on her cell as I stood there staring her down, watching her every move. “He wants to hear her voice . . . Well what am I supposed to do? He won’t leave until he hears her voice . . . Just put her on the phone, JT! . . . Hold on,” she said before passing me the phone.
“Hello,” I spoke, into the receiver.
“Help me!” she replied, her voice was weak, and I could tell that they had hurt her. I held it together.
“I’m going to get you . . . JT, put her back on the phone!”
“Fuck you, you go outside and wait like she said. I make the fucking rules, nigga!”
I had never been able to take that kind of talk, and once I found her, he was guaranteed to go down. He would soon find out that I meant business and he would see the wrath of a real street nigga. We went outside, she locked the door behind us, and we walked to the car and waited. A few minutes later my phone rang.
“Hello.”
“She’s out at Fairmount Park.”
“Which part? That’s a big park!”
“You’ll find her!”
Click.
“Let’s go, she’s in the park somewhere.”
We were at the park in a matter of minutes or so it seemed. I drove around for what seemed like hours. It was dark with dim street lighting. The snow that covered the ground made it hard to see. A few times I thought I saw something but was pissed when it wasn’t her. After driving around the park a few more times Rock pointed out an area clear of snow. I got out of the car and ran over to what appeared to be a blanket as I got closer. I lifted the blanket and found Sugar frozen underneath.
“Shit! Rock come help me!” I yelled. “Baby, wake up!” I tapped her to try and wake up unsuccessfully.
“Damn, man, get her in the car!”
“I can’t believe this, man. What did they do to you?”
I began to cry.
I didn’t care that Rock was witnessing my tears. I was about to lose the woman I loved. We jumped in the car and drove to the hospital where the emergency room team worked on her immediately. She had been beaten and her body temperature was so low that it wouldn’t register on the thermometer. I was told to sit out in the family waiting area until they could give me more information.
I paced the floor while I waited, and Rock had already left to meet up with my workers to handle JT and Dyna. I would take care of Mya on my own. It felt like hours had passed before the doctor came out to talk to me, and I wasn’t prepared for what he was about to tell me.
There were a list of injuries including broken ribs and a broken arm. She had hypothermia from being left out in the snow naked. She was in a coma and not responsive, and the last thing he told me was that she was approximately two months pregnant. It would be at least another hour before I would be able to see her. I buried my face in my hands and began to cry. I should have been there to protect her, and I was in arm’s reach. Now she could die and I would never be able to forgive myself if she did.
As soon as I was able to see her I rushed to the room. I could barely recognize her with all of the bumps and bruises. I walked over to the side of the bed and held her hand. I told her how sorry I was and how much I loved her. I would stay by her side and I hoped that she could feel my presence.